An attendee at the 5th China International Industrial Design Festival inspects a multifunctional lamp. Sun Yuchen

Anne Zhang  zhangy49@gmail.com

REPRESENTATIVES of Shenzhen and Denmark signed a design strategy contract to boost communication and cooperation in the design industry yesterday, at the opening ceremony of the 5th China International Industrial Design Festival (CIIDF) in Bao’an District.

The festival is one of the top design events in China and continues through Sunday.

The signing of the contract between the Shenzhen Industrial Design Profession Association and Denmark’s Science and Technology Innovation Department was an important moment for the festival, said Feng Changhong, director general of the local design association.

“Denmark has great design workshops,” Feng said. “After the cooperative relationship is established, Shenzhen designers will have a lot more opportunities to visit workshops and design companies in Denmark and learn from designers there.”

Cooperation between the two regions will initially focus on training and communication between talented designers, Feng said.

She added that perceptions that the city has a weak industrial mechanism and less-stringent intellectual property laws than European cities have, in some cases, prevented Danish designers from starting cooperation with Shenzhen designers.

Shenzhen previously has cooperated with Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, Finland and Sweden to hold the CIIDF and has since begun cooperation with Finland and Sweden in design areas. Copenhagen, Denmark’s capital, is the cooperative partner with Shenzhen for this year’s festival.

“By communicating with and learning from Danish designers, we hope Shenzhen designers can become good enough to cooperate with top international designers,” Feng said.

Top designers from countries including China, Denmark, Germany, Sweden and Austria will share experiences and creative ideas during the festival.

Ralph Wiegman, president of the organizing committee of the German IF Design Award, acknowledged Shenzhen’s achievements in industrial design over the past few years and said Shenzhen designers should try to create works that are more environmentally sustainable.

“Sustainability has become a key area in the development of the design industry,” he said. “We all have to be aware of the fact that we have only one global Earth.”